March 4th - Happy Birthday Patricia Heaton & Steven WeberMarch 4 is the 63rd day of the year (64th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 302 days remaining until the end of the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 4, 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.)

On this date:
In 51, Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).
In 1238, The Battle of the Sit River is fought in the northern part of the present-day Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia between the Mongol Hordes of Batu Khan and the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Russia.
In 1351, Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.
In 1386, Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) is crowned King of Poland.
In 1461, Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.
In 1493, Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what is now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.
In 1519, Hernan Cortes arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and their wealth.
In 1628, The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter.
In 1665, English King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands marking the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
In 1681, England’s King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn for an area of land that later became Pennsylvania.
In 1776, American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.
In 1790, France is divided into 83 départements, cutting across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.
In 1791, A Constitutional Act is introduced by the British House of Commons in London which envisages the separation of Canada into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).
In 1791, Vermont is admitted to the U.S. as the 14th state.
In 1794, The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress.
In 1797, In the first ever peaceful transfer of power between elected leaders in modern times, John Adams is sworn in as President of the United States, succeeding George Washington.
In 1804, Castle Hill Rebellion: Irish convicts rebel against British colonial authority in the Colony of New South Wales.
In 1814, Americans defeat the British at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and Thamesville, near present-day Wardsville, Ontario.
In 1858, Sen. James Henry Hammond of South Carolina declared “Cotton is king” in a speech to the U.S. Senate.
In 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States.
In 1861, The U.S. Government Printing Office began operation.
In 1861, The Confederate States of America adopted as its flag the original version of the Stars and Bars.
In 1865, The third and final national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress.
In 1882, Britain's first electric trams run in east London.
In 1899, Cyclone Mahina sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland, with a 12 metres (39 ft) wave that reaches up to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) inland, killing over 300.
In 1908, The Collinwood School Fire, Collinwood near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people.
In 1909, U.S. President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution's Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State
In 1912, groundbreaking took place in New York for Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
In 1917, Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
In 1918, The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic.
In 1918, The USS Cyclops (AC-4) departs from Barbados and is never seen again, presumably lost with all hands in the Bermuda Triangle.
In 1930, Coolidge Dam in Arizona was dedicated by its namesake, former President Calvin Coolidge.
In 1933, Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet.
In 1940, Kings Canyon National Park in California was established.
In 1941, World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands.
In 1943, World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the South West Pacific comes to an end.
In 1944, World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
In 1945, Lapland War: Finland declares war on Nazi Germany.
In 1952, Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married in California’s San Fernando Valley.
In 1960, an explosives-laden French freighter, La Coubre, exploded in Havana’s harbor, killing at least 75 people.
In 1966, A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
In 1970, French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew.
In 1974, People magazine is published for the first time.
In 1976, The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament.
In 1977, The 1977 Bucharest Earthquake in southern and eastern Europe kills more than 1,500.
In 1980, Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.
In 1983, Bertha Wilson is appointed the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.
In 1985, The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
In 1986, The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus.
In 1991, Sheikh Saad Al-Abdallah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, the Prime Minister of Kuwait, returns to his country for the first time since Iraq's invasion.
In 1996, A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin, US, causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.
In 2001, 4 March 2001 BBC bombing: a massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring 1 person. The attack was attributed to the Real IRA.
In 2001, Hintze Ribeiro disaster: A bridge collapses in northern Portugal, killing up to 70 people.
In 2007, Estonian parliamentary election, 2007: Approximately 30,000 voters take advantage of electronic voting in Estonia, the world's first nationwide voting where part of the votecasting is allowed in the form of remote electronic voting via the Internet.
In 2009, The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.

Ten years ago: Seven American soldiers were killed, 11 wounded, in Afghanistan at the outset of Operation Anaconda against remnant Taliban and al-Qaida forces. European Union’s 15 members ratified the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, but failed to set pollutant-emission levels to meet the accord’s targets.

Five years ago: NAACP President Bruce S. Gordon announced he was quitting the civil rights organization after just 19 months at the helm, citing growing strain with board members over the group’s management style and future operations. Former Sen. Thomas Eagleton, who resigned as George McGovern’s running mate in 1972 after it was revealed he’d been hospitalized for depression, died in St. Louis, Mo., at age 77.

One year ago: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s regime struck back at its opponents with a powerful attack on Zawiya, the closest opposition-held city to Tripoli, and a barrage of tear gas and live ammunition to smother new protests in the capital. NASA launched its Glory satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on what was supposed to have been a three-year mission to analyze how airborne particles affect Earth’s climate; however, the rocket carrying Glory plummeted into the southern Pacific several minutes after liftoff.

Re: March 4thToday is Monday, March 4, the 63rd day of 2013. There are 302 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On March 4, 1913, Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated as the 28th president of the United States, succeeding President William Howard Taft.

One year ago: President Barack Obama said he didn't want war but insisted he would attack Iran if that were the only option left to stop that nation from getting a nuclear weapon. Vladimir Putin scored a decisive victory in Russia's presidential election to return to the Kremlin and extend his hold on power for six more years. Nearly 300 people in the Republic of Congo were killed after a series of blasts at an arms depot in the capital Brazzaville.

Re: March 4thToday is Tuesday, March 4, the 63rd day of 2014. There are 302 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 4, 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.)

Ten years ago: Mounir el Motassadeq, convicted in Germany in connection with the 9/11 attacks, won a retrial from an appeals court. (El Motassadeq was later convicted of helping three of the suicide hijackers and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, the maximum possible under German law.)

Five years ago: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, addressing a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, called on Americans to look beyond their own tumbling financial markets to see a world gripped by an "economic hurricane" that could be turned around with U.S. help. Playwright Horton Foote, who'd won an Oscar for his screen adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird," died in Hartford, Conn. at age 92.

One year ago: Cardinals from around the world gathered inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, following the retirement of Benedict XVI. Kenya's presidential election drew millions of eager voters, but the balloting was marred by deadly violence. (Uhuru Kenyatta beat seven other presidential candidates with [sign in to see URL] percent of the vote.) Five-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Hingis headed the 2013 class for the International Tennis Hall of Fame; also named were Cliff Drysdale, Charlie Pasarell, and Ion Tiriac. (Australian player Thelma Coyne Long's election was announced earlier.)

Re: March 4thToday is Wednesday, March 4, the 63rd day of 2015. There are 302 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On March 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term of office; with the end of the Civil War in sight, Lincoln declared, "With malice toward none, with charity for all."

Ten years ago: American troops in Iraq fired on a car carrying just-freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena (zhoo-lee-AH'-nah ZGRAY'-nah), killing Nicola Calipari, the intelligence officer who'd helped negotiate her release and injuring the reporter. Martha Stewart, imprisoned for five months for her role in a stock scandal, left federal prison to start five months of home confinement. President George W. Bush nominated career scientist Stephen L. Johnson to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Five years ago: A Hollister, Calif., man with a history of severe psychiatric problems opened fire at a Pentagon security checkpoint; John Patrick Bedell, 36, wounded two police officers before being killed by police. Two Germans and two Turkish men were convicted in Duesseldorf over a foiled 2007 plot to attack U.S. targets in Germany and given prison sentences ranging up to 12 years. Turkey, a key Muslim ally of the United States, angrily withdrew its ambassador after a congressional committee approved a resolution branding the World War I killing of Armenians a genocide. (The measure, however, was never taken up by the 111th Congress.)

One year ago: President Barack Obama submitted a $3.9 trillion budget for fiscal 2015. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met in Ukraine with the new government's leaders in a show of support following Russia's military incursion into the Crimean Peninsula.

Re: March 4thToday is Friday, March 4, the 64th day of 2016. There are 302 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On March 4, 1966, John Lennon of The Beatles was quoted in the London Evening Standard as saying, "We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first — rock 'n' roll or Christianity." (After his comments caused an angry backlash in the United States, Lennon sought to clarify his remarks, telling reporters, "If I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it.")

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush, visiting Islamabad, praised Pakistan's fight against terrorism as unfaltering, but turned down an appeal for the same civilian nuclear help the United States intended to give India.

Five years ago: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime struck back at its opponents with a powerful attack on Zawiya (ZOW'-ee-yuh), the closest opposition-held city to Tripoli, and a barrage of tear gas and live ammunition to smother new protests in the capital. NASA launched its Glory satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on what was supposed to have been a three-year mission to analyze how airborne particles affect Earth's climate; however, the rocket carrying Glory plummeted into the southern Pacific several minutes after liftoff.

One year ago: The trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR' tsahr-NEYE'-ehv), charged in the Boston Marathon bombing, began with an acknowledgement from his attorney that the 21-year-old former college student committed the crime but did not deserve to die due to the malevolent influence of his dead older brother, Tamerlan (TAM'-ehr-luhn); prosecutors called to the witness stand three women who suffered severe injuries in the blasts. The Justice Department cleared Darren Wilson, a white former Ferguson, Mo., police officer, in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, but also issued a scathing report calling for sweeping changes in city law enforcement practices. A House committee investigating the Benghazi, Libya, attacks issued subpoenas for the emails of Hillary Rodham Clinton; the subpoenas from the Republican-led Select Committee on Benghazi came the same day The Associated Press reported the existence of a personal email server traced back to the Chappaqua, N.Y., home of Clinton.

Re: March 4th - Happy Birthday Patricia Heaton & Steven WeberToday is Saturday, March 4, the 63rd day of 2017. There are 302 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On March 4, 1917, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, the same day President Woodrow Wilson took his oath of office for a second term (it being a Sunday, a private ceremony was held inside the U.S. Capitol; a second, public swearing-in took place the next day).

Ten years ago: NAACP President Bruce S. Gordon announced he was quitting the civil rights organization after just 19 months at the helm, citing growing strain with board members over the group's management style and future operations. Former Sen. Thomas Eagleton, who resigned as George McGovern's running mate in 1972 after it was revealed he'd been hospitalized for depression, died in St. Louis at age 77.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama, in an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, said he didn't want war but that he would not hesitate to attack Iran if that were the only option left to stop it from getting a nuclear weapon. Vladimir Putin scored a decisive victory in Russia's presidential election to return to the Kremlin and extend his hold on power for six more years. Nearly 300 people in the Republic of Congo were killed after a series of blasts at an arms depot in the capital Brazzaville.

One year ago: The U.S. Supreme Court blocked enforcement of a Louisiana clinic regulation law placing new restrictions on abortion. Bud Collins, the tennis historian and American voice of the sport in print and on TV for decades, died in Brookline, Massachusetts, at age 86. Pat Conroy, author of "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides," died in Beaufort, S.C., at age 70.

Re: March 4th - Happy Birthday Patricia Heaton & Steven WeberToday is Sunday, March 4, the 63rd day of 2018. There are 302 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 4, 1793, George Washington was sworn in for a second term as president of the United States during a ceremony in Philadelphia.

Ten years ago: Republican John McCain clinched his party's presidential nomination, surpassing the requisite 1,191 GOP delegates as voters in Ohio, Vermont, Rhode Island and Texas put him over the threshold. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton won primary victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island, while Barack Obama prevailed in Vermont. Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre retired after 17 years, saying he was "tired." (Favre later made a comeback with the New York Jets, then the Minnesota Vikings, before retiring again.) Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax died in Lake Geneva, Wis., at age 69.

Five years ago: Cardinals from around the world gathered inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, following the retirement of Benedict XVI. Kenya's presidential election drew millions of eager voters, but the balloting was marred by deadly violence. (Uhuru Kenyatta beat seven other presidential candidates with [sign in to see URL] percent of the vote.) Five-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Hingis headed the 2013 class for the International Tennis Hall of Fame; also named were Cliff Drysdale, Charlie Pasarell and Ion Tiriac. (Australian player Thelma Coyne Long's election was announced earlier.)

One year ago: President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of tapping his telephones during the 2016 election; an Obama spokesman declared the assertion was "simply false." From Colorado's state Capitol to Trump Tower in New York and the Washington Monument, groups of hundreds of people rallied for President Trump. Tommy Page, a former pop star whose song "I'll Be Your Everything" went to No. 1 in 1990 and who later became a record company executive, died in New York at age 46. Former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter (YEYE'-tuhr), 86, died in Potomac, Md.